House electrics -very strange- stumped me

[LadyInBed]

Last year I was doing some decorating near my old fuse unit. I noticed some discoloration by one fuse, felt the fuse and it was hot!
Powered down and took off the box coved and found one wire charred.
It was a loose wire connection to the fuse holder. I put in a new consumer unit.
Point of the tale is check the fuse holder to wire connections are tight
I was probably close to having a fire.

 

[alahol2]

Had similar symptoms caused by internal short in the lead to a kettle. Only happened when the lead was bent in a particular way, no external sign of the short.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Don't mean to highjack.

I've been thinking of replacing the wired fuses with mcb's, but they are more proud, so the orignal cover won't fit, unless I make a skirt/lip to extend it.

Any thoughts???

I fitted 1 MCB in an 8 way Wylex board and had to cut the original cover for it to protrude through. The plastic is v brittle and will split if you're not v careful. One of these days I plan to replace the entire board as that would be cheaper than replacing the other 7 re-wirable fuses with MCBs - but I don't see it happening soon!
Re-wirable fuses are a pain though but fortunately they don't blow often.

 

[ghostlymoron]

, it won't cost a great deal more to get an electrician to do a proper job and fit a new consumer unit rather than patch up the old one.

I've just had an external light fitted by competant electrician which cost £100 and I supplied the light and switch!
Under new building regs, it's no longer permitted to DIY on electrics - it has to be done by qualified electrician. I don't know how 'they' would know though.

 

[Thistle]

Under new building regs, it's no longer permitted to DIY on electrics - it has to be done by qualified electrician. I don't know how 'they' would know though.

As I understand it, simply swapping like-for-like (eg replacing a socket or bulb holder) is OK. Adding new wiring has to be done by a competent person.
Cable has date information printed on it so that "they" can tell.

Now, where did I put that stash of recycled cable?

 

[allegrini]

I agree sounds like the old faithful immersion heater to me!

Usually when the eventually burn out they trip to earth and you cant reset the trip, but sometimes just to annoy you they create an intermittant earth fault that can have you shooting all over the house.

Start there first, i'll have a fiver says thats it!

 

[capetown]

As I understand it, simply swapping like-for-like (eg replacing a socket or bulb holder) is OK. Adding new wiring has to be done by a competent person.
Cable has date information printed on it so that "they" can tell.

Now, where did I put that stash of recycled cable?

As I understand it you can DIY, but must get it signed off by a competent person.

Was wondering if any Professional Engineer can sign it off? or only a "Sparky"?

Where's my "'uman rights"

There's often "old type" cable on that well known action site.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

As I understand it you can DIY, but must get it signed off by a competent person.

Was wondering if any Professional Engineer can sign it off? or only a "Sparky"?

Where's my "'uman rights"

There's often "old type" cable on that well known action site.

Interesting. I am not and do not claim to be an engineer of any kind. But, because of my senior membership of the IEEE, I am entitled to be called a Professional Engineer on the other side of the pond! I mean, I am even an Electrical and Electronic Engineer; this because I work on geoscience and remote sensing - not because I know anything practical about electrical engineering!

 

[prv]

As I understand it you can DIY, but must get it signed off by a competent person.

No. Indeed, the type of person you're thinking of (no actual guarantee they're competent as a company can block-register) is not allowed to sign off your work.

There are two routes. The first is for professional domestic electricians, kitchen fitters, etc. They're registered on a Competent Persons scheme, and can self-certify their own (and only their own) work. (Incidentally, a commercial electrician working in shops and offices may well not be registered in one of the schemes, so couldn't work on your house.)

The second route is for DIY. You submit a Building Notice to your local council before starting, who then decide how closely they want to check up on you - and this can vary widely between councils. Assuming you comply with their requirements, they then issue a Completion Certificate. A problem arises because Building Control Officers have no electrical training or experience, so a common requirement is to get a professional electrician to check your work when done (this is procedurally separate to the way they sign off their own work, even if the actual testing is very similar).

This costs money - so who pays? According to Approved Document P, and a clarification document issued by central government, councils are not allowed to charge the householder for inspections. Naturally they don't want to pay themselves, so it's normal to insist the householder pays anyway, in defiance of the regs. If you don't do what they say they won't give you your certificate, so what are you going to do about it? A Building Control Officer (not my local one) explained how his managers followed pretty much exactly this thought process in forming their policy.

Part P is not loved by Building Control, and they have no interest in looking for, or doing anything about, people who do not notify work to them. If you're building an extension or something then you will have to notify the job and can't really get round including the electrics, but anecdotal evidence suggests that virtually nobody notifies electrics-only DIY work, and council Building Control departments are quite happy with this situation.

Pete

 

[Nigel_Ward]

Might be an idea to check out all your power sockets for correct wiring using one of the plug-ins that light up showing a fault type if any. After finding one wrongly wired using this plug-in I physically checked all the connections in every socket and their plugs for tightness and correct wiring. The reason for the check was similar, the electric shower in a park-home was overloading the MCB; eventually got a new board fitted, but the checks were easy to do and eliminated at least one dodgy socket.

ianat182

Checking that all terminals are tight on all sockets in the circuit would be my first step.

The hard twin and earth wire yields under the terminal screws and can cause a slight surge enough to trip an MCB (even a light bulb going will set one off).

 

[penfold]

Part P is not loved by Building Control, and they have no interest in looking for, or doing anything about, people who do not notify work to them. If you're building an extension or something then you will have to notify the job and can't really get round including the electrics, but anecdotal evidence suggests that virtually nobody notifies electrics-only DIY work, and council Building Control departments are quite happy with this situation.

Pete

That sounds dangerously like common sense; something is wrong!

Part P is an utter waste of time; I have not noticed any change in the average standard of wiring that I see in houses since it came in. What was the point other than as a way of browbeating DIY types into paying a electrician to do what they are perfectly capable of doing themselves. The dangerous bodgers are probably just carrying on as they did before, setting up deathtraps and firerisks hither and yon.